The Time It Took Tom

I bought this book for 50 cents at my local library and what a priceless treasure! This is the one book both my kids -- ages 7 and 3 and-a-half -- will read over and over. My 3 year old has this book memorized word for word...even the pages with dozens of words. She recites it to everyone she meets. They love the mom's over-the-top reaction to Tom's painting the living room and the long recitation of what it takes to fix the mess. But best of all is their reaction to the cat getting painted red -- then blue. They find it hilarious. Who cares that this is not an example of good parenting (the mom disappears for 3 hours). My kids certainly don't think anything of it. They are just so focused on the humor, and anything that makes them smile has to be good.

Tom is a mischevious young boy who takes only ONE...TWO...THREE seconds to decide what to do with a can of red paint: paint the entire living room, including the walls, floor, furniture and even the family cat! It takes Mom ten seconds to explode, and the two of them three weeks to fix Tom's mess. The story ends in classic "round" fashion, with Tom finding a can of - you guessed it - blue paint. The bold line drawings in bright colors are lots of fun and the perfect complement to the text. The book lends itself to an over-the-top dramatic reading, especially sections like Mom freaking out upon finding her entire room painted red. Kids can join in on the "countdown" sections, and it's a good opportunity to talk about both numbers and time. Yes, Tom is completely unrepentant and we all have the sneaking suspicion that the can of blue paint will be put to similar use as the can of red before it, but that's part of the fun of the book. While this isn't what I would consider a classic in the vein of Dr Seuss, it's a very good read nonetheless.

A great book for preschool-kindergarten age. The best book to discuss the value of time -- how long is a second, a minute, three hours, three days etc! I read it at a book store, laughed out loud, mentionned it to the other moms hanging around the train table and we bought out the store's stock. We all bought one for ourselves, and then stocked up for Birthday and Christmas presents. You can't go worng for the 4-6 year old set! Enjoy!